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The Van Gaal Press

People have noted this season (particularly in the wake of the weekend’s dire Manchester derby), that midfielders are playing very deep against Manchester United. The trend is so noticable it’s hard to believe this is merely a tactical choice by the opposition, it seems to be a result of Louis van Gaal’s system.

To investigate, I’ve calculated touch and pass position data for central midfielders that have faced each team this year, shown below. The numbers show the average touch, pass origin and pass destination positions for all centre midfielders that have faced each team (the scale being 0-100, with 50 the half-way line):

Team

Avg Touch

Avg Pass Origin

Avg Pass Destination

Manchester United

44.51926063

47.14841735

51.55053695

Leicester City

45.05928718

47.32132381

52.12353278

Manchester City

45.4496121

48.24134365

53.19319751

Liverpool

45.89123026

48.95034476

54.04786207

Swansea City

46.18809823

48.32293877

53.11346676

Southampton

46.25431495

49.22049595

54.61689272

Chelsea

46.50900395

49.70079151

54.99465714

Arsenal

46.8681167

50.68533242

55.81001527

Tottenham Hotspur

47.03199819

49.89996785

54.3030956

Norwich City

47.14109456

50.31740135

54.9030868

Aston Villa

47.45585136

49.54328543

53.8444452

Crystal Palace

48.13725296

51.21570527

55.9466553

Watford

48.24922592

50.75826777

56.71823835

West Ham United

48.77145302

51.10018841

56.01941418

Bournemouth

48.83120838

51.76185565

55.25849846

Everton

48.94061809

51.58424266

56.5168618

West Bromwich Albion

49.51670881

52.29698356

56.89588286

Newcastle United

49.94203841

52.23178746

56.66736148

Sunderland

50.02737643

52.0606335

57.20442918

Stoke City

50.58672432

52.27340464

56.65906781

First, average of averages klaxon, I’m actually calculating the average position of each centre mid in each game, then taking the average of those. That’s slightly naughty, but if you think of the first average as the player’s position within a system, we’re really just averaging out the systems, so I’m alright with it. I also think in at least one case, I’ve miscategorised players playing 4-1-4-1.

Manchester United sit at the top of this table – their opponents have less space to work with in the centre than any other team this year. But how are they doing it? Rewatching a few games, there are a couple of reasons.

First, it’s entirely possible that opponents are just giving Man Utd respect. If you push up against Man Utd’s centre and lose the ball, often they’ll switch it out wide and counter. Contrast Man Utd’s numbers to Everton’s above, another ostensibly possession-oriented side – if you lose the ball to Everton, Ross Barkley is just going to run into a dead end and give you the ball back, or they’re going to whack it forward for it to bounce off Romelu Lukaku with his back to goal. There just isn’t that same threat, but I don’t think this is the primary reason, and I don’t know why Man Utd would have more of a fear factor than City and Arsenal.

A second observation is that, Man Utd’s attackers have been very good defensively. Wayne Rooney has done few things well this season, but he’s actually doing a good job as a defensive forward, winning 8 of his 11 tackles in the opponent’s half, and dropping deep to press. Juan Mata has also attempted a surprising 14 tackles in the opponent’s half. It’s clear than Man Utd are defending well as an entire team.

But thirdly and most importantly, I think van Gaal has instructed his players to press in the centre of the field to the point that it sometimes looks like they’re man marking opposing playmakers. One thing I’ve noticed is that Rooney, Herrera and others are constantly communicating to pick up players in the centre:

Rooney signals Herrera to pick up Gareth Barry

This time Herrera calls for Rooney to pick up James McCarthy

Man Utd press aggressively early on against City

Martial dropping to help double-team Yaya Touré

Rooney and Schweinsteiger communicating to pick up players in the middle

It’s clear there’s a lot of organisation here, to keep central midfielders from having space anywhere near the centre circle, so it must be an explicit tactical instruction. But how did this all fall down against Arsenal?

First, somewhat ironically, Santi Cazorla seemed entirely happy to drop very deep, and his long passing was hitting the mark. There were also constant communication problems between Bastian Schweinsteiger and Memphis Depay over whose job it was to pick him (or indeed anyone) up. Lastly, Arsenal’s movement in the centre was just excellent that day, with Cazorla often drifting to make space for Aaron Ramsey dropping deep.

Schweinsteiger and Depay fail to communicate and leave large spaces.

Cazorla happily drops deep to find space.

Cazorla drifts wide making space for Ramsey.

Arsenal’s first goal ultimately came from Depay wandering inside, unsure who to pick up, leaving Arsenal space to break (albeit skilfully) down the right hand side.

It’s possible you’ll disagree with my interpretation of the games, but there is no doubt that Manchester United have been very affective at driving opposition central midfielders deep, and I think the per-team data is very interesting to study going forward.

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One thought on “The Van Gaal Press”

Schneiderlin didn’t start against Arsenal, correct? LVG played a defensive midfield of Schweinsteiger and Carrick – neither of whom are athletic enough anymore to carry out a man marking scheme. Could be a factor?

I’m glad you picked up on what Rooney is doing – obviously LVG doesn’t keep playing him for now reason. While his legs might be going, If LVG is going to play a defensive, isolated striker, and send Depay and Martial forward from the wings, he could do a lot worse than leaving Rooney up top.